South Korea to change e-mail addresses of diplomats after cyber attack

South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is preparing to change the email addresses of its diplomats following a significant cyber attack on the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA). The breach, which spanned 10 months from April 2025 to February, is estimated to have compromised up to 10,000 records. This includes the names, user IDs, and email addresses of all KNDA users, encompassing every South Korean diplomat.

While the leaked email addresses do not grant direct access to accounts, officials are concerned about their potential use in sophisticated phishing campaigns. Such attacks could erode confidence in official communications with foreign partners. The ministry has advised diplomats to be vigilant about emails from unverified senders and to use unique, regularly changed passwords for different accounts to mitigate security risks.

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advised officials to exercise caution when receiving emails from unverified senders. We are also urging officials not to use the same passwords across multiple websites, recommending unique passwords for each account and regular password changes to reduce security risks.